Wishing Tree
by Kessie-Louise
Summary: Years ago, Saga (OC) made a small aspen tree her special 'wish tree': a tree where she would hang little slips of paper with wishes on them in hopes of them coming true. Silver finds the tree, along with a younger Saga when her older self accidentally shifts, and is able to make a wish as well. [light Silver/OC][oneshot]


Saga could only recall one memory from before she discovered her time hopping powers. She couldn't tell you how old she was at the time, but she could look back on the memory as if it had occurred yesterday.

Of how she found the young tree was a detail lost, but she would always tell you what she felt when she laid eyes on it. The aspen tree was taller than her, of course, but significantly smaller than the trees around it. One branch in particular was about her height, though. The young Mobian cat gave the branch a small tug, to test its strength, before pulling out a small piece of paper with string attached. The paper itself wasn't anything special (this was before she decided to get formal stationary or gift ribbon to better adorn the slip of paper) but it held great meaning to her. Written on one side was a small message- unreadable due to young Saga's inability to actually write sentences, but she could just as easily remember what had been written.

She wouldn't tell anyone what it was though. No one really cared to ask either.

Ever since then, every year on a certain date, Saga would go back into that forest and place another slip of paper containing a short, personal message to hang. Her own special wishing tree, hoping that some day they would all come true. Not a lot did, unfortunately, but by the time she had realized such fortune was from her own doing and not by some magical guardian fairy, the little area had become one of the few places she could completely feel at ease.

Silver was not aware of this area at first, nor that it had a calming effect on his troubled friend's mind. He found out in a rather unconventional way, during a meeting with the Professor at Peace Keepers HQ.

The Peace Keepers were an odd little bunch in Silver's city. They aimed to do as they were named; to keep the peace. One of the members was a scientist, known only to everyone as the Professor, who ran a lot of experiments on Silver and Saga. The two were different than most everyone else in the city- sure, there were others with odd abilities, but Silver and Saga were the only ones within the Peace Keepers, and therefore easy targets for the Professor to work on.

Silver's niche was obvious; telekinesis, with an inconsistent habit of falling into a time stream and coming between the crossfires of a blue hedgehog and egg-shaped madman. Suppressants for that minor problem usually worked, except for when they didn't. Silver's body would eventually grow an immunity to the suppressant, leading the Professor to create another formula that would soon be rejected by Silver's genes.

Saga could travel though time as well, but her powers were much stronger than Silver's. No suppressant the Professor created could stop her from falling into the time stream. That wasn't even the scariest part for her; the scariest part about her powers was when Saga from the present time would go into the past or future, that version of her would come to the present. This easily led to situations were a manhunt was sent out to find the newly traveled Saga, hoping that it was an older self who could take care until someone found her and not a younger self who was still unaware of what had happened. Silver had tried to assure her that her existing in the present meant that a past version of herself did survive where ever she ended up, but Saga was a skeptic and refused to believe that fate was set in stone.

Where Silver decided to better hone his telekinesis so he didn't accidentally level a city, Saga lived in fear of when and where she would travel to next.

"Saga, we're late." Silver goaded as he poked a semi-asleep Saga in the ribs. "We promised the Professor we'd be at headquarters before noon."

Drowsily, Saga looked up at Silver. "If I sleep, I won't shift." she slurred before rolling over. 'Shift' was a term that Saga herself had come up with, to refer to her ability in some contempt.

"Well, if you want to believe that, I won't stop you." Silver informed her, netting a side glance from the young cat. "I'd rather forget that night, to be honest."

Saga turned back around to see for herself if Silver was lying to her, but he did hold some truth. The Mobian cat girl emitted a small groan in defeat.

"Five more minutes?" she sadly begged.

"Sure." Silver agreed with a small smile, glad that Saga was decided to cooperate. "But don't take too long. I wanted to go the long way to HQ today."

At this notion, Saga adjusted herself to sit up a little. "You're going to buy me coffee?" she asked, almost surprised. Silver's answer was another smile while pressing a finger to his lips, to indicate that it was a secret.

"You'll let me get sprinkles too, right?" Saga then questioned, sitting up even more. Again, Silver didn't reveal a thing as he started to make his way out her door.

. . .

"There you two are!" the Professor marveled at Silver and Saga entered his laboratory. "I see someone needed coaxing this morning."

Knowing he was talking about her, Saga gave a small nod before taking a short sip of her heated beverage. It was still way too hot to actually drink, but it didn't stop her from doing it in tiny doses.

"Sleep does not curtail your powers, my dear." the Professor then chastised. "If anything, it makes it more potent- particularly if you are dreaming."

Not caring one ounce about the Professor's evaluation, Saga gave a lazy hand wave to him and seated herself at one of his desks. From there she started to sip her caffeine with a bit more vengeance, taking bigger sips in hope to burn the roof of her mouth faster. Silver was about to say something to her, but was interrupted by the Professor, who seemed to not have noticed Saga's souring mood.

"Silver, how is Lot 255 working?" the scientist questioned.

"Fine enough, I guess." the hedgehog admitted, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "I still have a weird aftertaste though. Is that normal?"

"Does it taste like steel or likewise some other bodily fluid?"

"Uh… no…?"

"Then it's fine!" the Professor heartily declared, giving Silver a surprise slap on the back. "We'll continue with the lot to see if it mutates with the gene!"

The hedgehog gave a rather nervous chuckle in response. Breaking this moment, however, was the sound of Saga's paper coffee cup hitting the floor. Silver and the Professor turned their heads to find that Saga was no longer sitting at the desk chair, and had vanished altogether.

"Saga!" Silver exclaimed in surprise as he ran to the chair, as if it had swallowed her whole. It shouldn't have been surprised, really, but there was always some amount of shock to having Saga in one place one minute and gone the next.

"I do wish that girl would tell us when she's about to shift." the Professor then nonchalantly noted. "It would be easier to help curtail whatever starts it."

Silver looked at the Professor, growing a bit irritated now. "Where _is_ she, Prof?"

"Right, right, I'm getting to it." the eccentric scientist decided as he went to his computer. While the Professor tried to find traces of the other Saga, Silver decided to busy himself by cleaning up the coffee mess. Just as Silver was finished cleaning up, the Professor told him where the other Saga had appeared and Silver left without another moment's hesitation.

. . .

At first glance, the hedgehog was more than confident that he should have been more impressed at the aspen tree grove than what he was. Many of the trees were taller than most buildings he had seen, some were snapped in half from storms that had blown through ages ago. But there was one tree in the grove that stood out from all of them- it was a bit smaller, but what made it really stand out was the little strips of multicolored paper hanging from multiple branches. Underneath that tree was a small little Mobian cat with light blue fur.

Silver let out a sigh of relief; it was a young Saga, located and completely safe. Silver walked up over to her and let out a rather gentle, "Hi there." that made the young cat jump several feet in the air. The young cat looked the hedgehog over with suspicion.

"This is my special wishing tree. Go find your own." she told him. Immediately, Silver threw up his hands to show innocence.

"I didn't mean to intrude!" he claimed, being somewhat honest, "I was just looking for a friend."

Young Saga looked him over again before deciding he was alright, then looked up at her so-called 'wishing tree.' Silver watched her as the young cat deduced that something was off about it, but wasn't sure what. Eventually, she turned back to him.

"Does someone else use my tree for wishes?" young Saga asked Silver. "Is it you?"

Silver gave a small side smile. "Nah," he said to her, "This tree is just a bit older than what you know it to be."

Saga looked up at Silver for a moment before deducing, "I shifted in time again, didn't I?"

An awkward, but agreeing shrug and nod from the hedgehog gave the young cat the knowledge she needed.

"Well..." she huffed, showing that even at the younger age she despised her inherit ability. Her mood soon shifted though as she turned back to Silver.

"Since you're here, I'll let you make a wish too, but just this once!" young Saga informed him in a stern tone, although a bright smile started to peek through. "You can write on the other side of my wish… I, um, haven't thought of anything to put on it yet anyway..."

Silver gave the little cat a smile. "Thank you." he replied gently before Saga handed him the slip of paper and a crayon. Carefully, but moving quickly since Saga could shift again at any time, Silver wrote on the paper. The younger Saga tried to sneak a peek, but he didn't let her until he was finished. When he was done, he held it up for her to see.

On the paper, Silver had drawn rather crude caricatures of himself and Saga. They were surrounded by something that looked like a lemniscate, with small circles acting as a mindless background ornament.

"That's not a wish, stupid." the little Mobian cat playfully teased with a roll of her eyes. "It's a doodle."

" _I_ know what it is." the hedgehog rebutted. "Don't you have wishes that you won't tell to anyone, not even your wishing tree?"

At this thought, young Saga's face started to flush a dull pink. Of course she did- but she wasn't going to tell him that. Silver noticed her brief shyness and gave a small smile as he returned the slip of paper to her.

"Now what do we do?" he asked her.

"Now we gotta find a spot to put it on the tree, of course!" Saga gleefully informed him, her whole face smiling right back at him.

The hedgehog gave a nod and looked up at the tree. He calmly looked over the tree's branches before taking note of one that had yet to have a wish placed on it. "How about that one?" he offered, looking back down at the young Saga. But she was gone now, back to her proper time without warning. Silver gave a faint smile as he looked the tree over, attempting to find the wish he had created.

With some time, he did find it on one of the higher branches. He had to use his telekinesis to move himself closer to better read it- on the other side from what Silver had drawn, Saga had written something.

 _A future friend!_

A smile couldn't be stopped from coming to Silver's lips as he lowered himself back down to the ground. Behind him, a small rustle alerted him to someone else being there. Silver stood at alert until the Saga he properly knew fell over and into his view.

"Saga!" the hedgehog immediately yelped as he ran toward his friend and to her side. Her body was bruised, as if she had tried to hit herself repeatedly in an attempt to force herself to shift back. Or maybe she had gotten into a fight with someone. Both options (and others similar to them) were things Silver didn't want to fathom at the moment.

"Turns out..." present-time Saga croaked weakly, "Coffee and shifting…? Not a good combo..."

"It's alright now," Silver tried to soothe as he tried to cradle the cat in his arms, "Just relax. You're safe now. Promise."

The Mobian cat took his word for it and reluctantly gave in to her fatigue. Looking around for some place Saga could better sit, Silver carefully used his telekinesis to move her under the wish tree and waited for her to come around again. In the mean time, he did what he could to her wounds. He wasn't very good at first aid, but he attempted what he could do.

When he was finished, Silver felt satisfied with his friend's state that he relaxed next her against the tree. It was there that he realized that the multiple slips of paper that hung from the tree looked more beautiful looking up. The colored paper was a bright contrast to the green leaves, the sunlight highlighting certain slips as if it were promising that it would be the next wish to come true.

"I didn't make a wish this year." Saga quietly spoke, surprising Silver. "My shifting is getting worse. I haven't had time to think about my old routines..."

Silver didn't answer, finding that silence was better than telling her she could practice her powers, and continued to look up at the tree.

"This is one of the few places I can relax, too." Saga then went on, likely just talking to herself now. "Dunno if it's just this grove in particular, or because I've spent so much time here it's almost like a second home."

"Hold up," Silver then teased, looking over to her with a mocking grin. "You can relax?"

Saga turned her head over and gave him a lopsided smile in return. "I know right?" she replied with a mocking sarcasm. "The only other time is when I'm with you."

Silver gave a small chuckle, and started to say "Yeah, right, when you're with..." before realizing what she had said. The hedgehog took a look at the cat in an attempt to read her facial expression for further connotation, but Saga had drifted off into sleep.

Now unsure of how to react, Silver looked back up at the tree's limbs. Maybe he could coax Saga into letting him make another wish to share. This time, though, it was certainly going to come true.


End file.
